The EU plans to create a “counter-propaganda television channel” run counter to the freedom of speech, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov told TASS on Monday.

The EU plans to create a “counter-propaganda television channel” run counter to the freedom of speech, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexey Meshkov told TASS on Monday.

“We’ve always taken a positive position on the freedom of speech. But the EU plans for creating a kind of counter-propaganda channel can hardly correspond to the concept of freedom of speech,” Meshkov said.

The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Lithuania and Estonia sent a joint letter to EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini saying the upcoming ministerial meeting slated for January 19 would focus on strengthening strategic communications inside the EU and outside it.

Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevics Latvia, which is holding the rotating presidency in the EU, said earlier that the EU was considering a possibility of creating a new Russian-language TV channel.

This proposal is being discussed now and the channel itself is considered an alternative TV information source, Rinkevics said.

It would feature entertainment as well as “very factually accurate news”, he said.